How to Get Rid of Black Ants

Last week I had a black ant problem in my bathroom. Little black ants were swarming all over my bathroom counter. I tried wiping them up, but after several attempts I realized I was losing the battle. I did what any tech savvy housewife would do and asked my Facebook friends how to get rid of these ants!

Since I had a few cinnamon sticks leftover from Christmas I decided to place a few in my bathroom. A few hours later all the yucky ant friends were gone. I was surprised that it worked, but after researching it a bit I found out that ants dislike powder (I used sticks, so obviously this wasn’t the reason) and that they don’t like the smell.

I noticed that a few days later I had one or two ants back in my bathroom. I’m going to put some cinnamon powder down tonight and see if that keeps them away for a while.

Since I have little children I like to avoid using poisons unless I really have to. I love the fact that the cinnamon worked to get rid of the black ants. What works for you?

Yes, Torro is the ultimate best. We are combating them like mad. Put liquid torro in a little bottle cap and place where ever they are showing up. They will eat, regurgitate and more will do the same and take back to the nest. We killed 30 in one evening doing this. They came all out for the feast.

Thank you so much! I live in the woods, and every solitary, for the past few years they have been invading my kitchen. I can’t buy bananas, etc., for them, and have to place a lot of pies and cakes; cookies, etc., in plastic containers. I’ve purchased ant bait traps at Home Depot, to no avail, so thank you, again so much!

Terro is good for small ants. The big black ants may nest in the bark of a dead tree. Usually ants nests come from the outside. Finding their nest, like little mounts of sand outside, is a big help. Spraying is not a good idea. Try home remedies first. Cinnamon, baby powder baking soda with powdered sugar,etc.

I have bought tarro at home depot, I am not sure if wal mart has it. I have been battling ants with tarro and the ants are dying before taking it back to the nest so they just keep coming. I don’t know what to do anymore. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks

Hi Sue,
I would like to suggest our product. We developed it to get rid of roaches and have found from friends, neighbors and customers that it works great to get rid of ant problems in the house. Put a couple of caps in their trail and keep the backing paper on so you can move them around if necessary. Scrape the top of the product to make some crumbs. The ants will begin to take the crumbs back to the mound the queen will eat the product and die and the population (egg laying) will stop. Hope you will check out our website and give us a try. Thanks Crissy

THIS IS JUST LIKE A NIGHTMARE AND I JUST CAN NOT SEEM TO WAKE UP,I HAVE BLACK ANTS CRAWLING IN MY HOUSE DON’T MEAN JUST 1 OR 2 EVERY MONTH BUT 20-30 WEEKLY NOW THE WEIRD THING IS ALL MY NEIGHBORS HAVE THE SAME ALSO SO I AM NOT SURE WHAT KIND THEY ARE.I HAVE NOTICED PPL ARE SAYING TERRO BUT NOT SURE WHAT THAT IS AND IS IT DANGEROUS TO PUT EVERY WHERE AND CAN I ALSO PUT IT IN MY DISH CUPBOARD WHERE I HAVE SEEN 2 OR 3 ALSO,THOSE LITTLE CREATURES ARE GOING TO GIVE ME A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN LOL,BUT I ALSO HAVE A 1 YEAR OLD BABY IN MY HOUSE BUT SHE IS GOING ON A 3 WEEK HOLIDAY WHICH DOES ME FINE.ALSO HOW HARD IS IT TO FIND WHERE THE QUEEN MIGHT BE OUTDOORS?DO YOU RECOMMEND AN EXTERINATER FOR THE OUT SIDE JOB AND HOPEFULLY THEY WILL NOT ALL RUN INTO MY HOUSE AFTER HE IS FINISHED THEY WERE IN MY DISHWASHER ALSO ,THAT MADE ME VOMIT
PLEASE IN DESPERATE NEED OF HELP :(((((

I have bought Terro at Ace Hardware in my town. However, I’ve found that it doesn’t always work…the worker ants are dying like mad, but every night hundreds more come out again to take their place…and it’s been going on like this for 2 months! I’ve got to find something that will eradicate the nests completely and I’ve got to caulk the entry point into the house.

i use white rice, ants eat the rice and explode, they also take it back to there nest, the others also eat it. i buy the cheapest i can find put it under my deck in the garden looks funny cause it looks like maggots for awhile. it does seem to work. also spray them with 409 house hold cleaner. it kills them instanly

I will try Terro. What I have tried but does not work is Ortho Home Defense, Raid spray and Hot Shot MaxAttraxt Ant bait. I am at my witts end. I keep the counter clean so now they are on the floor. I think they are coming in from outside through my doorwall which I have srpayed several times inside and out. They just keep coming!

I have tried Terro, which got rid of them before along with cornmeal on my kitchen counter but now that is just not working. I also spray all around with Ortho Home Defense & used Raid spray. I have not used Hot Shot MaxAttraxt Ant bail. I have had problems for more than a month now & found some on my stove top and a few in my bathroom and today I found a couple on my refrigerator door near my freezer and a couple near my washer & dryer.
P.S. My house is not dirty and I don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink but I have left well rinsed dished in the sink with standing water. Could this be a problem???

I have used vinegar and that does work for awhile. Otherwise Terro is a wonderful poison to use. You do have to keep the kids and pets away from it and not kill the ants, but in a couple of days it will kill all of them.

If I find the source, I spray it with laundry stain remover. They do hate it, and its ok for our clothes, so… And then I swear by the little plastic ant “motels” by raid. if you put them around the room that has the ant trouble, soon enough you won’t have any ants around. Whenever the ants start to appear in the spring, I put out some new ones and within days the problem is gone.

I used to teach fourth grade and every year, we had ant problems! Since we couldn’t spray obviously, I used the ant traps and they worked great because the ants are attracted to them and they will take what’s inside back to the colony. Of course, if you have wee little ones, you probably don’t want them putting the traps into their mouths but as far as I know, the stuff that works is inside the traps. I think it depends on if your kids will mess with them and if you can hide them effectively.

Saturday, our kitchen was attacked by black ants. I tried the cinnamon treatment and it did not work. The ants just found a path around it. My hubby went to Home Depot on Sunday and bought Terro and the ants are gone, hopefully for good.

We get them. In the bathroom and the kitchen. For the kitchen, I wipe everything down with clorox wipes at night, for the first week after seeing them, now I do this every other day. Keeping the counters clean is the key and I mean eat off clean. The bathroom, I have tile(white) on the floors and mop with clorox wipe on the pads.
Now as was said earlier, you are just sending them some where else, so I use the Terro outdoor bait spikes and place them, next to the house, all around the house. Takes a few packages cuz they need to be spaced so far apart, but this takes care of it for at least 6 months or more. I put another round in the fall, to stop them before winter. The bait spikes are a couple inches across and are put close to the house, so my daughter never bothers them and they have no affect on our cats.
I have tried a natural spray for ants, but the smell of whatever spice is in it was so strong, we had to open the windows. Its not an appealing smell, after the first little whiff. EcoSmart is the brand, it does work, but for me the smell is too much and lasts too long.

I use mint oil and vinegar to clean my bathroom floors which is where I see them. The vinegar takes away their trail (so the other ants can find you) and the mint keeps them away. My bathroom smells like a candy cane!

BABY POWDER!!! I’m not kidding, it’s amazing! Anytime I see any ants, I coat the area with baby powder, leave it sitting for a few days and they are gone. Sometimes I do a few more coats, but it works.

The reason is because the powder gets in their ant lungs and suffocates them, if they even smell it they won’t come near it!

It’s not safe around little kids and pets, but if you really want to get rid of them, you have to kill the queen. We use a TBspoon raw hamburger mixed with 1 tsp borax – give or take. The worker ants carry the meat back to the queen who eats it and dies. We leave it out for a day which is usually all it takes for the ants to get hold of it. Then, no more ants.

Hubby worked at a hardware store when he was a kid, and he insists on Amdro outside. They carry it back to the mound and it kills them there. Inside, though, I’ve found chalk works well! It’s something every mother has on hand (last I used outside chalk, which worked fine) and it comes in so many colors, I had no problem matching the floor, baseboards, walls, whatever! 🙂

Good luck with finding their nest 😉 One time we had a TERRIBLE ant invasion in our kitchen and I tried all kinds of things to get rid of them. Natural and otherwise. Terro usually does the trick for me, but this time they were horrid. I ended up getting my garden sprayer out, and followed their trail out the door and just sprayed their trail with garden bug spray as far as I could follow their trail… until I was out in the middle of the front yard and still finding them. That took care of them and thankfully we haven’t had any trouble to that extent since.

Actually you want to use instant grits or oatmeal and this works for ant mounds/hills. grind the instant grits or oatmeal (in a food processor) to a powdery substance. Pour it in the ant mound, after sometime time (you decide) you can add water to the mound. You do want to give them time to eat the powder. Once they drink the water the ceral will expand inside of them and blow them up.

my black sugar ants are comming out of every tree in my yard ,about a dozen of them . almost every day i kill thousands of ants by following the trails of ants up and down the trees and then on the ground down my drive around my brick house and in the yard.my spray kills on contact but there seems to be an endless population. im sure the nests are in the trees. only a few times have they been in house. i will try all ive read from your website

We’ve tried several natural alternatives in our house but none of them seemed to work. I’m sensitive to chemicals, so we avoid them whenever possible. We have found that Terro works very well, though, and it doesn’t bother me too much. Other than that, I clean the counters in the kitchen with sanitizing wipes every night and make sure that all of the dishes are clean. Any kind of food that is out will attract them, so all of our cereal and opened foods are in plastic storage containers in the pantry so they don’t get any ideas. The Terro takes a few days to start working, but since they take it back to the rest of the colony, once they’re gone it’s usually for good.

We had a similar problem last summer. Ants really don’t like the smell of peppermint too. I bought a small tin of Altoids & put them in the cracks & corners of my bathroom. We even put some up close to my backsplash in the kitchen where we were having a problem. They left & never came back!

I didn’t have much luck with vinegar. It only seemed to help temporarily. But we were determined to find something that wasn’t a poison that worked. I might try cinnamon this year if we have a similar problem b/c I’m pretty sure my hubby ate all of the leftover Altoids! 😀

I sometimes get little black ants (my mom always called them sugar ants)in my kitchen and can never figure out where they’re coming from. I didn’t have time or money to buy ant poison, so I just grabbed a bottle of Mr. Clean and sprayed it all over them. Killed ’em dead! Probably not the most natural of methods, but it worked!

I’m going to get some of that Terro and keep it on hand for the inevitable next time!

We have gotten them every year since we moved into this house 7 years ago. They just started up again this week. They have a huge nest somewhere and they usually crawl up through an entry point near our dining room, then crawl along the floor and round the corner and up to the kitchen counter. We have tried EVERYTHING suggested here (except baby powder). We have used natural cleaners, bait traps, sticky liquid bait, etc. Everything works for a bit, then they come back in full force. The ONLY thing that gives us any relief (for any real length of time) is liquid poison sprayed along the baseboards. *sigh* DH sprays poison outside too. We really hate to use poison, but if we don’t THEY WILL WIN!

Last year we found them nested in the door that leads to our basement. They were carpenter ants and were literally eating away at the wood inside. You could see the wood residue in the morning (they worked/came out at night). Those little ants are smart. They wouldn’t leave the little wood shavings right under the door. I literally sat one night and watched them take each piece and throw it down the stair. By morning, the little wood shavings/residue would be half way down the stairs!

We had to get rid of the door. There was no saving it. Hopefully they don’t find a new place to nest this year! I already saw one or two ants in the house last week. We’ll see what happens!

If you have carpenter ants, DO NOT WAIT! Call a professional. If they are out where u can see them, they are lots of places where you can’t. They will do terrible damage, have your home professionally sprayed. It sucks, it’s not cheap but you don’t want that kinda damage, trust me!

The BEST solution is Avon’s Skin So Soft bath oil – I’m not kidding 🙂 It has over 50 uses (including repelling fleas and black flies off your pets). This stuff is amazing. I buy the small spritz bottle and then the large to refill. I simply spray wherever ants are prone to enter and they are gone. It’s non-toxic and it works.

THANKS FOR HEADS UP ON SKIN SO SOFT,FOR SOME REASON I BOUGHT SOME OVER A MONTH AGO TRYING TO REMEMBER WHY,I KNEW IT HAD TO DO WITH SOME KIND OF BUG BUT WAS NOT SURE.PROBLEM IS I CAN NOT SEEM TO FIGURE OUT WHERE THEY ARE COMING IN FROM,BUT FOR SOME REASON I THINK IN MY BACK YARD BECAUSE ON MY GALLERY THEY ARE ALL OVER CLIMBING THE OUTSIDE AND THAT IS WHERE WE SEE MOST OF THEM ON THAT SIDE OF THE INSIDE OF HE HOUSE,JUST WISHING I WAS ABLE TO FIND THE QUEEN BIATCH LOL
THANKS

We had the same problem in our kitchen a few summers ago and it was gross AND frustrating since that should be a clean area for sure!!! Before our kids were born I SWORE by Terro (I bought it at Home Depot or Lowes). I literally tried ALL the methods people have listed above (I got super obsessed about riding the ants!) and none of those methods are really lasting or effective at all and they can be messy. Terro WORKS and the ants never seem to become “immune” to it, which is something that can happen with more “natural” home remedies.

Now that I have a toddler and an infant, I SWEAR by Barrier Pest Control. They treat the interior and exterior of our home as well as the property (grass, sidewalks, driveway etc.) and I’ve NEVER seen an ant and it’s bee a couple years!!! The solution they spray is non toxic for humans, dry quickly and is odorless… PERFECT for any household, even more perfect for those of us with mini me’s!!! Barrier is amazing with their service and they come between the scheduled quarterly treatments as often as you want for FREE. We pay less than $200 a year and it is something I will ALWAYS incorporate into our budget 🙂 They treat for more than ants… that plus spiders is all we have them focus on.

As parents we don’t have time to waste on trying every spray, goo or home remedy recipe… only to discover that it’s all ineffective in the end. Good luck and I hope that soon your ants pack up and never return. In the grand scheme of things, ants aren’t the end of the world, but it’s an amazing thing when you don’t have them around the house 🙂

I sprayed my kitchen floor with “Hot Shot” for wasps and the next morning a pile of them were tumbled over dead, or squrming to stay alive. It worked great to get rid of them once and for all, but keep kids & pets away. Also, there is NO FOUL ODOR from the spray.
good luck!

I woke up this morning, went out to my kitchen, and it had been invaded. Not by little sugar ants, but by giant black ants. I lifted up a bag I left on the counter and they poured out. I’ve thought about natural remedies, but since I don’t have kids yet and I just want them dead I’m going the poison route. I’m going to finish my breakfast and go buy some.

The place where ants are in my house is in the kitchen around the sink area and my counter tops. I try to keep them wiped down and dishes washed but the will not stop coming!!! I have tried the traps, and raid sprays but it hasn’t worked yet. I guess now i can try the cinnamon and toro b/c they are driving me crazy. always all over my clean dishes and i have to make sure there are no ants on a dish before i use it … :/

i just had a big black aunt problem outside on my porch so cleaned them all off by spraying them off with the hose the water dryed and sprinkled ground cinnamon all around in the cracks on my porch and there not coming up on my porch they are all over the ground but not on my porch and coming in my door thanks for the good tip

My mom had been having an occasional ant problem in her bathroom and they hadn’t decided on a long-term solution. In the meantime, they were using bug spray. One day after “using the facilities” she was startled by an ant and grabbed the can and sprayed him fiercely! He froze completely but the spray didn’t seem quite right–she had grabbed the hair spray. Good thing she didn’t grab the bug spray for her hair.

Well, there aren’t any bug or any other dangerous sprays in the bathroom unless they are under the sink. I think Mom still uses her bug sprays, but I try to use the other solutions. I have been known to use boric acid in kitchen cabinets. Not so non-toxic, but non-accessible and not quite as many poisons as all the commercials sprays and so on.

The cinnamon has always worked for me with the little black sugar ants. Folks think i’m crazy when i tell it, but it does actually work. It doesn’t work (just found out…) for the big mannish black ants. I’m still working on those. Good luck.

We developed an ant problem after the pest control people treated the exterior of the house for termites. Go figure! The large black carpenter ants showed up in droves. I tried the Raid ant bait stations but it did nothing for me. What did work is vacuuming all of the cabinets out and wiping down EVERY surface with disinfectant. Even if your house is clean and doesn’t look dirty they are staying for some reason. The smallest amount of food or a greasy film on a cabinet will give them reason to stay. A spot of grease could feed a colony for over a day I’m sure. I am a meticulous house keeper as I’m sure most of you are. Those that aren’t wouldn’t be here freaked out about ants in their homes. I vacuumed my cabinets, wiped down cabinets inside and out, wiped down the stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, etc. I also sprayed ant killer where I saw them. I think I killed about 100 ants as I cleaned and haven’t had a problem in a couple of weeks.

I’ve never done this myself, but I know others that have and say it works. Use cornmeal, the ants eat it, take it back to their nests and share it and none of them can digest it so they die. It may take a few days, up to a week if it is really humid or rainy. The benefit is that it is kid and pet safe.

I’ve had an issue with black ants since our “NO NAME” storm months ago….had the professionals come out…nada….I have since found 3 nests, one in the flag pole(yesterday, out front, flag on oak tree), in a large piece of bamboo (which is now in the trash)and my pool PVC chair (which I threw in the pool). Millions of them were hiding out there. I’ve gone through 3/4 bottle of Toro, seems to take care of but only a short while. I see hundreds of dead ants but there are still two paths….on the ceiling of my patio…going down the downspout. Can’t find the nest. They have not come inside,thank god, but annoying just the same. I have dropped the trails down to two, but want to finally rid my patio of these ants. The geckos are even full from eating them lol We had two nights of freezes, but that didn’t seem to bother them. So, how do I treat an area which is above my head? I’ve put the Toro on cotton balls, which the ants attack but once it’s gone the ants still return. I’ve also put down all the “ant stuff” from Home Depot and they crawl over it! UGGH HELP thanks
Anne in Fl.

Spring has sprung and we have ants. They are black. First I saw them in the kitchen, now on the other end of the house in the bathroom and computer area and just on the back side of the house. I cannot find where they are coming from. There is no trail. I have scrubbed and sprayed a natural “soybean” organic something (I have a 15 month old) into the baseboards, put baby powder everywhere, sprayed Raid before going to bed, bought Ortho to spray outside. I dont know what to do!!! I guess I will try sitting out some of this Terro stuff at night before bedtime and see what happens. I havent seen any ion the kitchen yet this morning (I hit it HARD last night with Raid, around outlets, window seal, sliding door, baseboards…) but I have smashed about 20 sitting at the computer typing this. Where are these things coming from??? UGH!!!

We have a travel trailer,we have had the medium size black ants for 4 mo. I put down terrro they eat it and disappear on the counter and floor dead so they do not take it back to there nest. they stay gone for a few days and than they come back, I cannot find the nest, I have looked around the trailer outside and cannot see any black ant. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi Gloria;
We make an EPA approved product that will get rid of the ants (and roaches and silverfish) It is People, Pet and Planet friendly. It also works for 6-8 months or longer. Check out the pestimonial videos on our home page.http://www.roachridder.com One of our customers talks about this exact problem.
Crissy

Got the info on the kitchen and bath but………..Last week I saw a few ants on top of my modem. While killing them, I bumped the modem and BOOM ants started to pour of the modem. As I was spraying them, I kept tapping on the edge of the modem and they just kept pouring out. Not sure but 300+? I’ve also seen them in my dishwasher and didn’t seem to matter if the contents are clean or dirty. Any suggestions, I appaently have ants that are tech savy…

Also, foundations? I get anywhere from 5 – 15 lines of ants going into the house. I’m on the cheap so I don’t want to have to buy anything unless I have no other choice. ??

Having just found this site and living in the UK pardon my ignorance – but what is “terro”?? I use ant baits but have found them to be very slow acting. Thankfully my guests are the smaller variety that emerge every spring, In the Uk they tend to be attracted to older properties. That terro sounds to be ideal – many thanks for any information.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m gonna try the splenda and see what happens. I am under seige over here. HUNDREDS every day ALL over house now. I’ll keep yous (LOL) posted on my outcome. I LOVE A GOOD CHALLENGE. LOL

IM having the same issue. i work 2nd shift and have a little one so i pass out as soon as i get home and im usually running around all morning. so i have NO idea where theyre coming from. theyre just suddenly everywhere. i saw A nest n just sprayed the crap out of it with hairspray. kinda an impulse reaction like “take that!” but tomoro im going to get Borax. my parents told me to mix it equally with sugar n lay it in little piles around the house. they swear by it. so ill try it out n let u know.

I haven’t had any problems with ants, roaches, etc. but I’ve read about some suggestions. Use vaseline in outside areas arouund the base of the house or around basement windows, etc. The ants or other critters won’t cross it because they will get stuck in it. Also, baby powder, flour, cornstarch, etc. (anything powdery) can be placed in the path of ants or other insects. It was explained that insects breathe from underneath so if they cross the powder they inhale it and it suffocates them.

Carpenter ants nest in your attic. I had sear’s for a year come out (They use Boric Acid Powder) a new worker came out one day, he replyed “They nest in your attic” you have to do your attic. He went up did my attic and I never saw them again a big thank you to that man! I now have black ants, found the trail into my house, they are following my phone wire into my attic, I will use the Boric acid powder mixed with sugar (corn syrup) and water and cotton balls a temp. until I can get to the store for the strong stuff. The attic is safe away from my pet’s. Also if you have Spiders, I got really mad at them and sprayed “ADAMS” flea and tick mist made to put on dogs and cats “wow” they just died right thier in front of me and my animals were safe. Now the ant’s here I come!!

I have been using Terro in my kitchen and bedroom for nearly a month and the ants are still coming! I have tried everything. I have over 20 pieces of aluminum foil with liquid Terro placed where ever I see the ants and I re-bait them almost daily. The ants are attracted to the traps but it dosen’t seem to be getting rid of them. Any ideas?
Thanks

OMG thank you all sooooooooooooooo much I did the baby powder only one time and woke up to no ants any where in my house. My 19 month old Daughter left cheese on the porch and still nothing, you all rock in my book. *<:O) The Barnett-Dunker Family

Cinnamon Oil is the best black ant repellent. It’s natural, nontoxic and smells great and better than anything out there. I am not saying this just because I sell the stuff, but please believe me it is very effective. The Cinnamon Leaf oil mixed water (2% Cinnamon Leaf oil is fine) will get rid of the black ants within minutes. This is because Cinnamon Leaf Oil messes up the ant’s sense of smell which is vitally important to them. Spray the affected area and wipe it down with a micro fiber cloth. It is actually a good idea spray your whole kitchen or bathroom. Inside the cupboards too.

One of the great benefits of Cinnamon Oil is that you can use it on any surface. Even your fruit bowl and the fruits. Gets rid of those tiny fruit flies and the fruits are safe to eat every if they are covered in the spray. (If you exceed the 2% ratio of Cinnamon Oil it will burn your mouth a little though). Use it inside your refrigerator or on your cutting board to get rid of Salmonella. Regular use of Cinnamon leaf oil will also stop all kinds of other house insects like roaches from coming. Keeps away rats too. And if you have plants with flowers that do not need to be pollinated, then you can safely spray all your indoor plants to keep away all kinds of tiny insects and get rid any fungus problems on the leaves.

The scent of Cinnamon is well known to increase alertness, memory skills and improve your mood. That should get rid of your foul mood after battling the ants. Sorry couldn’t pass up that joke. But you know what I mean. It’s that good. And if you can buy my Ceylon Cinnamon leaf oil I would be really happy. The Cinnamon Leaf Oil I sell is not diluted or blended, so the little oz bottle should last about 1 year and will save you a lot headaches.

I just moved into a new place and it is infested with ants. I’ve tried borax mixed with powder sugar but it hardens to easy. I also have the terro bait out in all windows cause thats where I seen the most. Since putting the bait in the windows they have started crawling all over floors. I think there is a nest in the walls somewhere. Does anyone know of anything that I can put all along the wall and floor that isn’t harmful to kids and animals?

I have used Terro for years and it works well. I had some left from last year and I think it must lose its strength after a while because it is not working. I don’t know for sure but I think it is borac acid and some sort of sweetener. It comes in a little bottle and the box has little cardboard squares you lay out and squirt the Terro onto. Within minutes the drop is surrounded with ants. You can also use the baits and reuse them. Rinse them out and refill.

I have so many ants this year coming into my kitchen and some have little wings. They are black sweet ants. We have fire ants also, and they also like Terro. These are tiny black ants, not carpenter ants. I tried the powder. I did not have any babypowder so I used A tiny bit of dusting powder Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps. It is working and my kitchen smells really nice. Tomorrow I am grinding up the grits and oatmeat and rice and I will spread it around my foundation. They are coming in through the weep holes. I have no idea where the main mound is, but I am going all out.

I have never tried but I read that if you mix baking soda and powdered sugar together in equal parts and leave for the ants they eat it and explode. They also take it back to their colony thus killing out the whole colony. The baking soda reacts with the acid in the stomachs and causes gas build up and POP because ants can’t release the gas. I will be tryin this method.

What really work’s like a bomb is front line it’s for your pets flies spy little spray around your house and where you have ant problems you will be ant free for a very long time and any other pest invasion you might have

Woke up at 2:00 am to find a huge ant trail across my bedroom floor ( I have been battling them room by room for a month now) read about baby powder used it seem to do the trick. Going back to bed no toxic fumes and no ants 🙂 Gong to try some of the other tips when I wake. Thank you all for sharing.

Sounds like this method merely diverts the ants rather than get rid o them. Where did they go when they left your bathroom? Surely in another part of the house! I want my ants gone for good, not relocated to another room. :/

Mrs Meyer’s concentrated lavender cleaning solution mixed 1 part with 5 parts water. Sprayed on the ants it kills them instantly. Also wipes the trails. Once it dries, though, they come back. I’m planning to use a commercial poison outside and will keep using Mrs Meyer’s inside – maybe the double whammy will get them?

I love the Terro. If it doesn’t work, the ants want protein. Last year, when they got so bad, I made my own Terro. When there were still ants, I made a batch with peanut butter. That seemed to help.

Way back when we lived in a duplex, the ants would just walk through the door. I would spray something to confuse the smell, them sweep them out. They couldn’t find their path and they wandered away. We used cheap perfume, or anything else that changed the smell. But now, I don’t know which way the path is going! If I mess up their scent trail, they might get stuck on my side.

This time around, we will make our own Terro. Those ants are desperate! I heard that feeding them outside, could keep them from coming inside… I won’t do poisons… Don’t need to. The natural stuff works.

Many years ago in the late 90’s I had a problem with the little red-orange sugar ants also known as piss ants due to the urine like smell they leave behind. They were swarming around my parked truck. So I just mixed up some boric acid and honey. Put it down and those ants were all over it in seconds. By the end of the day only 1/4 of the ants were still there. By the next day, they were all gone. Since this stuff hardens just like the sugar water and boric acid method, don’t make up very much. I would say use about the size of a thimble for the honey and half of a thimble for the boric acid. I think I might give this a try with our small black ants as they did not respond to the peanut butter and boric acid. I was thinking of using a small amount of pancake batter and boric acid to see if that would work.

Since March 2015 – June 18 2015 – It has rained almost EVERYDAY ( rare weather ) anyways , I noticed …’small black ants ” arrived. I don’t have food or water laying around , these “small black
ants WILL STARVE in this house . 45 minutes ago , I put down some black pepper and chili pepper
on the counter , I went back to check on it , they’re gone . But I will buy something to take back to
there colony . This Is what I think …1. because it’s raining to much ….2. Because this kitchen on the
back wall of house and back door is close .
The house is always cleaned , no clutter anywhere ( bare ) don’t like clutter . I always sweep and
mop daily , few months ago , I spring clean , but I also fall clean too .
Every year we spray 3 times the ENTIRE YARD and along the foundation for insects ( April , June and August ) again it normally helps , because of all the RAIN , I think it caused more problems .
Wish me luck !!!!!!!

A few years ago , I emailed Terro , and they emailed me back .
Told me exactly what to do …. The ants came back.
Ants ….comes ….back……every……year ….in…..the….Spring Time !!!
You could buy some stuff to put in your lawn , that could help too .

The problem with cinnamon sticks is that they have a limited range of effectiveness–onl right in the area where tehy are. There are other natural choices, like diatomaceous earth or Orange Guard, that are also nontoxic and are easier to use over a wide area. You can see this blog post I have about this topic: http://antinvasion.net/2015/06/natural-ant-repellent-ideas/

yeah i have tried everything mentioned. cleaned the whole house til it was spotless. shot them with a mix of rubbing alcohol and dish soap, cinnamon, cloves. the works. the terro stuff seemed to work when they were few in number but in the end it just seemed to send the queen into overdrive to repopulate. I currently have a bedroom thats infested so thoroughly you cant lie on the bed. we’re going to have to move its so bad. let me put it this way: they are on my ceiling. Im seriously going insane trying to deal with these little buggers.

I know this may sound odd but Adams Flea & Tick spray (not the arosal one). Spray it around doorways, windows, outlets, baseboards. Once it dries it is non toxic to kids and pets. It kills ants and any other bug imaginable as it crosses the sprayed area. Eventually the ants stop trying. Works for about six months before you need to respray. This stuff has saved my sanity.

I woke up this morning to find a BIG black ant on the rim of my water cup which I keep on my nightstand. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 The ONLY insects that “cuts it for me” are ladybugs and butterflies! I also got stung by a big red ant once and I don’t want an insect anywhere near me when I’m SLEEPING! I did a quick web search and found you! HELP!!!!! 🙂